KEBS new and stringent measures causing fertiliser shortage

A woman picking flowers at Oserian flower farm. The farm decries delays of fertiliser clearence at the port of Mombasa further causing sortage.

The new and stringent measures on local inspection of all fertilizers introduced by Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) are now causing massive fertilizer shortage in the country, occasioned by delays at the port of Mombasa.

Sounding the alarm over the shortage, Kenya’s leading flower grower and exporter Oserian Development Company says the delays are grinding farm operations to a near halt with devastating effects.

While KEBS has traditionally certified the quality of fertilizers in the country of origin before shipment, it has introduced a new set of rules which include re inspecting all consignments at the port of entry as it seeks to tame proliferation of counterfeits.

This lengthy clearance process that now takes up to two months before release of consignments has been blamed for the unprecedented shortage.

According to Mary Kinyua, the Director of Human Resources and Administration at Oserian, fertilizer suppliers are incurring up to Sh2 million shillings daily in demurrage which they are passing to them, further pushing the cost of producing flowers up.

The company is now predicting a dip in yields and increase in flower prices, which it says will be the case among other growers as they seek to compensate their margins, making Kenyan flowers costlier at the competitive global market.

“The flower industry has this year already been hit by bad weather, pest and disease pressure, high cost of production as a result of increased fuel cost and fluctuating markets. This bottleneck within our borders will only make things worse,” Mrs. Kinyua said.

Oserian is a frontrunner in hydroponics technology that embraces the use of soiless medium to grow flowers. The technology relies on fertilizers to feed flowers. A shortage even for a day disrupts the entire production cycle which ultimately affect markets and earnings.

Oserian now predicts that if the trend continues it will have far reaching effects to the industry and the economy.

“The consequences of further delays will be far reaching and will affect our businesses through low or no revenues which will lead to massive job losses, lack of foreign earnings, government will not raise tax and this will lead to a complete shutdown of an industry that has been built in the last 30 year and made impressive gains,” Mrs. Kinyua added.

Oserian’s alarm comes days after the industry’s umbrella body, Kenya Flower Council warned of a looming crisis if the government doesn’t address the current delays.

“We are doing everything possible to support our members in unlocking the situation as soon as possible to avert total collapse of the industry,” KFC CEO Clement Tulezi said in a communique to members.

The Council has reached out to government in a bid to avert the unfolding crisis by looking at ways of expediting the inspection including immediate release of fertilizers that have passed the inspection test to ensure growers get the input in time.

“As much as KFC appreciate the controls KEBS is putting in place to ensure quality and conformity to standards, the process should be quick and facilitative to the industry. We are doing everything possible to support our members in unlocking the situation as soon as possible to avert total collapse of the industry”, the communique further read.